Magan boat reconstruction

[Ian_Grant]

Just received this as part of my daily Smithsonian email..........

 

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/this-bronze-age-ship-replica-made-from-reeds-and-goat-hair-just-sailed-50-nautical-miles-180984728/?utm_source=smithsoniandaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=editorial&spMailingID=49999354&spUserID=OTY4MjUzNzkyMTQ3S0&spJobID=2742374672&spReportId=Mjc0MjM3NDY3MgS2

[wefalck]

Similar boats were still built by the 'Marsh Arabs' in southern Iraq in the middle of the 20th century I think (see Wilfred Thesingers book on the 'Marsh Arabs').

[Ahmose]

"In the past, fragments of Magan boats have surfaced on the island of Umm an-Nar"
They were actually fragments of bitumen that beared impressions of reed and wooden boats, but not actually fragments of boats, see: https://www.ancientportsantiques.com/wp-content/uploads/Documents/PLACES/IndOc-Gulf/Gulf-Connan2005.pdf

(Page 23)

Anyway, the overall outline of the ship seems to be roughly based on the bitumen models from Ur in Iraq, in fact, there are no depictions of boats from Magan-Oman itself, there are, however, several depictions of boats from the land of Dilmun in Bahrain and Qatar, much closer to Oman than Ur is, and they look very different from the Ur boats: the boats of Dilmun are usually much more "angular" and one of the ends of the boats is usually bifurcated, for instance. So this reconstruction is very speculative, to say the least.
 

Edited February 13 by Ahmose